A way back home
by Almighty Smurph
Summary: The team find out that Ward hasn't been in prison in fact he has been protecting them from a far. With this information are the team ready to let Ward come home. One-shot. Disclaimer I do not own Agents of SHIELD.


A way back home

For a dead guy Fury gave out a lot of orders. Ten months ago Fury called in some of favours to get Ward out of prison, who had been sentenced to life with no possibility of parole. Ever since Fury got Ward realised for his tiny prison cell, Ward had been watching the team from a distance. Ward was under strict instructions to keep his distance from the team, he was only to watch them, protect them if needed and to report back to Fury. Ward didn't mind keeping his distance. He doubted that any of them would be happy to see him. His contact had told him that they were all very mad at him and hated his guts especially after he had sent FitzSimmons down to the bottom of the ocean in a box with no way out. His contact had also had informed him that once Fitz had woken up from his coma he had some memory problems. You had to tell Fitz something a couple of times so he did forget five minutes later.

His contact was Hill. She had been working with the team to help re-build SHIELD with the help of Stark and the information Ward had giving Fury. If the team left the Playhouse, Hill would call Ward and tell he where the team was headed so he could follow. He had on occasion gotten rid of a tail that had been following the team without them noticing him. He had only seen Skye a couple of times. She was the main reason he agreed to watch over the team. He promised himself that he would anything to keep her safe.

"That's the fifth time a tail has just disappeared. I told you something is going on. I didn't even try and get rid of this tail this time." May was fuming as she stormed up the spiral stair case on the bus.

"What happened?" Simmons asked Coulson who was getting out of the SUV.

"May walked around the corner and waited for the tail to come around to grab him but he disappeared.

"I'll have a look at any CCTV footage and I'll go back over the previous disappearances but I'll widen the net." Skye told Coulson.

"Thanks Skye." Coulson replied, "If there is a person behind these disappearances I hope they stay hidden so May doesn't get her hands on them." Coulson said going after May.

"You think May would be glad to not do any combat." Fitz commented.

***A.O.S***

"AC!" Skye shouted at the top of her lungs.

Coulson came down from his office and stood next to Skye looking at the big screen. There was a screen shot of a man. It was in black and white and quite grainy but he would make out exactly who the man was.

"This can't be right. He's in a prison cell, one that he's spending the rest of his life in." Coulson was trying to wrap his head around what he was looking at.

"I triple checked and I went back through all the other occasions and he's always there. How is he out, AC?" Skye asked her voice shaken.

"I don't know but I'll find out." Coulson reassured her.

Coulson left Skye to make a phone call to Hill, if anyone knew why Grant Ward was walking around as a free man he hoped she would know.

"Did you know Ward was out of prison?" Coulson said the second Hill pick up.

"Hello to you too Coulson…" Hill replied calmly. "The last I heard Ward was in a very tiny prison cell."

"I want the truth Maria." Coulson wasn't buying what she had to tell him.

"Fury got him out." Hill admitted.

"Why?" Coulson wanted answers.

"Fury thought you and the team might need some extra protection."

"Well we don't. You can tell Fury, I didn't want him anywhere near my team." Coulson slammed the phone down hanging up on Hill.

Outside hidden in a tree Ward watched the plane from a distance. He knew something was wrong when Coulson came out of the plane and stated looking around. It was like he knew he was close by. That's when Ward got the call. He was to head back to Willamette National Forest in Oregon. Fury has a cabin there and wanted Ward to go there, it was also where he had gone when he had been released from prison. Ward liked it there but it reminded him of the forest Garrett had left him in all those years ago. Before Ward left he turned his attention back to the bus, Coulson was looking around for him but he wasn't alone Skye was with him. He took one last look at Skye. It would probably be his last he would see her from the way Fury spoke on the phone.

Climbing down the tree Ward picked up his backpack off the ground. The backpack was the only thing he carried around with him. It had a couple of spare clothes, a bank card and his phone charger in side. Fury didn't give him a gun or knife thinking Ward would get them himself but Ward never armed himself. Fury also didn't give him an ID. Since Skye had deleted the whole team, in prison Ward was just a number and on the outside he was just a shadow. Walking away from the only thing he felt that gave him propose, Ward wished Fury had never gotten him released from prison.

***A.O.S***

For the next couple of day there was nothing but tension on the bus. No one knew what to think, Knowing Ward had been watching them had put the on edge. That tension only increased when Hill came aboard the bus. She had come to talk to Coulson.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, Hill." Coulson said to her, they had been joined by May in Coulson office.

"No I don't, Fury is the one with a lot of explaining to do." Maria replied crossing her arms across her chest. She wasn't happy she was stuck in the middle of all of this.

"You could have told us what Fury had done." Coulson told her.

"Fury told me not to."

"He's not the director of SHEILD anymore and you don't work for him so you have no reason to follow his orders." Coulson explained.

"True but you haven't read Ward's report." Maria admitted the real reason for not telling them Ward was protecting them.

"Then let me read it." Coulson said.

Maria pulled of a folder from her bag and slapped it down on Coulson's desk. The whole room was quiet as he read the report. His face fell the more he read. Once he had finished reading it he looked up at Hill understanding why she hadn't told them. Coulson held out the report for May to read who had been standing quietly in the corner of the room.

"He's mute because of the damage his larynx sustained during his last encounter with May. I don't think it would matter any way, he doesn't communicate. Only nods head once Fury's given him an order." Hill told them.

"You believe he deserves a second chance?" Coulson asked.

"You're the one who says everyone deserves a second chance, Phil. Yes he berated your team and SHIELD but you read the report he was never loyal to Hydra just Garrett and that's why the physiologist diagnosed him with Stockholm syndrome. So yes I do believe he deserves a second chance as did Fury but Ward refused to talk to the physiologist that's why Fury had Ward watching you." Hill said.

"I want to see him." They all turned their attention to Skye, who was standing in the door way.

"You can't." Hill told her.

"Why?" Skye asked.

"Coulson wanted him gone so Fury sent him away, I don't know where." Hill informed her. "And if you're about to ask me to ask Fury where he is, I've already tried he won't tell me."

"Then give me his cell number and I'll find him that way." Skye was going to find Ward with or without Hill's help.

"Why the sudden need to see him? If you hadn't known he had been watching this team you wouldn't have given him a second thought."

"You're wrong! There hasn't been a day that hasn't gone by where I don't think about him. I CARE ABOUT HIM! I LOVE HIM!" Skye screamed at the top of her lungs. Skye took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself. "Does he know?"

"Yes." Hill knew exactly what Skye was talking about.

"Does he know it was a boy?"

"No. He didn't want to know." Skye nodded understanding why Ward didn't want to know.

"I still want to see him."

Hill signed and throws Skye the phone she uses to contact Ward on. "You need to find out which cell tower his last text he sent to Fury pinged off since he turned his phone off since then."

"Thank you." Skye said then left Coulson office.

"Can you keep an eye on her for me May, please." Coulson instructed his second in command. May nodded, handing Hill back Ward's report May left the Coulson's office as well.

***A.O.S***

It took Ward two weeks to turn his cell phone back on. When he did he had numerous text messages from Hill, however only one stuck out the most. The text message only had an address on a location in Portland. Deep down he knew that the text wasn't from Hill it was from Coulson. He has a feeling something like this was going to happen. They didn't like the idea of him not being in prison and he knew that. Ward started to think that maybe he should just disappear but doing that would mean that they would always be after him. He was never going to be free so he decided he would go to Portland and face what he had coming to him.

He didn't know which way to get to Portland so he had his way down to the closest village to pick up a map. Even though public transport would have gotten him to Portland a lot quicker, Ward walked the 150 miles to Portland. It took him several days but the text message was already two weeks old what was another couple of days. The night before he arrived at his destination, he lay staring up the sky. He thought about everything that led him to be the man he now was. He wished he could chance the past but then also wished he couldn't. If he had never set fire to his parent's house then Garrett wouldn't have gotten to him but then he might have never meet Skye.

Skye. The only person who had managed to break through the walls he has spent building to keep people out. She made him feel again. Made him see that everything Garrett had been doing was wrong. She also saw him for the monster he was. That's exactly what he was. A monster, who should be routing in prison.

Arriving at his destination he paid little attention to the parade that was making its way through the streets. His destination happened to be an apartment building. Looking up at the old building he thought about what was waiting for him in apartment 19. He thought the Coulson couldn't be up there but Ward couldn't find a reason for his ex-boss to have him come there. Unless May who would be waiting for him. He thought that maybe she would be there to finish him off. He had picked the perfect day to arrive. If she was going to shot him the parade would drown out the gun shot and she could easily slip into the crowd to disappear. _It wasn't like anyone would miss him if May was to kill him_, he thought.

He knocked a couple of times on the door of apartment 19 but no one answered the door. Checking the handle he found the door open. _Maybe the team wasn't here after all,_ he thought. However he could be more wrong. In fact he was wrong about who was waiting for him. It wasn't Coulson or May it wasn't ever Hill or Fury. It was Skye. She was standing with her back to him looking out of the big windows watching the parade. His first instinct was to run but he was frozen where he was. He could tell that she knew he was standing in the same room as her as she had stopped swaying to the music coming from the parade.

"I'm guesting you want to know why you're here." Skye said turning to face him.

Ward nodded looking down at the floor. He couldn't keep eye contact with her. He felt like he was hallucinating he would look up and find May standing at him with a gun pointed at him. He jumped when he felt a soft hand on his shoulder. He hadn't heard her more over to him nor did he expect her to touch him.

"Put your bag down and you might want to take your jacket off, we are going to be here for a while." Skye told him. She watched him put his bag on the floor and take off his jacket, placing it on top of his bag. He wasn't as muscly as he had been and he had lost a lot of weight which to Skye didn't make much sense Hill told her Fury had given Ward a bank card with unlimited funds on it unless he had purposely not eaten. His eyes were sunken, it looked like he hadn't had a good sleep in a while.

Skye took his hand in hers, he didn't jump this time. Skye led him through to the back bedroom of the apartment. His heart began pounding in his chest when he was what was in the room. He wanted to pull away from Skye but she kept a tight hold in his hand. _Did she really hate me this much?, _Ward thought, _why did I come here?._ Skye turned to face Ward when they entered the room and was surprised to see him crying. Skye reached up and wiped away the tears that had fallen. She could see pain and angst in his eyes. Letting go of his hand she waked further into the room. Ward felt like he was glued to the floor with his eyes fixed on Skye. As Skye walked back over to him, he was taking small steps backwards trying to keep some distance between them.

"Grant this is Theo James 'TJ' Ward, our son." Ward looked down at the baby boy in Skye arms.

In his mother's arms TJ stared up his father. Ward had known Skye was pregnant and knew that he was the father. He didn't want to know if Skye had given birth to a boy or girl because if he was ever to see his child it would have always been from a distance. Ward could see that his son looked a lot like him but the little boy had his mother's breath taking brown eyes.

"Would you like to hold him?" Ward nodded unsure. He was scared of hurting TJ because he looked to fragile. Skye instructed Ward on how to hold their little boy as she placed TJ in Wards arms. "He was born on January 20th at 10:50 in the morning weighting 7 pound exactly." Ward smiled at what Skye was telling him.

However one thought kept running through his mind, to Skye he was a monster. _Maybe this was her way of punishing me, _he thought. _It's not like I didn't deserve it. Coulson will be here any moment now and he'll take me back to prison where I belong. I don't deserve to know him, I don't deserve to be a father. I don't deserve any of them. I'm a monster. _Ward passed TJ back to Skye then made his way back through to the livingroom to wait for Coulson. Ward was now going to have to live with the fact that he had a son who would never know who he was and would probably never see again.

"Ward?" He looked up to see Skye standing in front of him still holding their son. Ward broke down. All of his emotions came crashing down on him. Skye sat next to him and held his as he cried. Ward clung to her being careful not to squish TJ. "I need you to listen to me, ok." Ward nodded indicating he was listening.

"I wanted to go see you when I first found out that I was pregnant but I was still mad at you for what you had done. Part of me just wanted to tell you because I wanted to make you suffer. However I wanted you by my side. I wanted you hold my hand during my first ultrasound, hold my hand the first time I heard his heart bet, feel him when he kicked, tell me that I looked beautiful when I felt like a beached whale, to hold my hand whilst I was in labour and to hold me as I held our perfect beautiful baby boy. Deep down I knew that not telling you was the right thing to do no matter how much it ripped my heart apart every time I felt him move and kick.

"It hurt knowing that you knew I was pregnant and you had to keep your distance. But I want you to know that you won't have to keep your distance anymore." Ward looked at her confused, "We've all read your report that you gave Fury. We all agreed to give you a second chance."

"Why?" His voice was no louder than a whisper and voice was really gruff.

"So you can talk, Hill thought you were mute." Skye was happy to hear his voice.

"Hurts." Ward coughed his lungs up when he replied.

"Try not to talk, you haven't talked for a while and there might still be some damage from you fight with May. Our reason for giving you a second change is we all believe the man you became the longer we spent together as a team is who you are. Garrett is dead so you get to be yourself. We are going to get you the help you need and I'm going to be with you every step of the way but you have to be willing except the help. I need you, Grant, TJ needs his daddy. Please say you'll except the help, please." Skye rested her hand against Ward's cheek, Ward led into her touch taking in the warmth of it.

"For you….'n'…TJ." Ward rested his forehead against Skye's looking into her eyes but before looking down at his son, who had fallen asleep in his mother's arms. "Love you 'n' TJ."

Skye had always believed his feelings towards her were real, she never doubted that. Her feelings had never changed either. "I love you too." Skye smiled at him. He smiled back causing her heart to flutter. "We have some time before we should head back to the bus so why don't you hold him."

Ward smiled again, his eyes shining with love. Ward relaxed against the back of the couch holding TJ on his chest. Skye watched Ward with their son. He looked peaceful. Skye moved to lay her head on his shoulder. Skye also felt at peace. She felt him place a kiss on top of her head then watched him do the same to TJ. Skye snuggled closer into his side. They sat watching their son sleep in a comfortable silence. In no time Ward and Skye had also fallen asleep.

Ward and Skye were woken up by the noise of TJ's soft cries. The baby boy wriggled against his father's chest hungry and needing his nappy changed.

"He's hungry and probably needs his nappy changed." Skye mumbled as she woke up. "Come on, I'll teach you how to change a nappy." Skye smirked at Ward as they headed back into the bedroom.

Skye placed the changing mat on the floor and once Ward had laid TJ on the mat, Skye took him through step by step on how to change their son. Ward smiled proud of himself that had a managed to change his first nappy even if Skye helped.

"Daddy did a good job didn't he, yes he did, yeah." Skye spoke in a high pitched voice to her son as she picked him up to feed. "Are you coming to join us?" Skye patted the spot on the bed next to her.

Ward had stayed back thinking she would was privacy to feed TJ. "Hurt?" Ward asked taking a seat next to Skye on the bed.

"No but he sometimes latches on a bit hard which can hurt but only for a minute or so." Skye explained to Ward.

"Labour?" Ward was glad Skye was able to understand his question and that she answered then.

"It was long, 17 hours long. May was the first to notice I was having contractions. Since my waters hadn't broken I hadn't found the need to tell Jemma. Jemma would have just fussed around me, I mean I love Jemma, but sometimes she can be too much. I really wanted you to be there." Ward looked at her questionably, he never through she would have wanted him to be with her as she gave birth. "Don't look at me like that. I told I want you know you were going to be a father. I think part of me wanted you to beside me just so I could break your fingers but I really wanted to there so you could see TJ enter the world." Skye interlocked her fingers with his.

"I'm sorry." Ward gave her fingers a small squeeze and a small smile.

"I know but we'll get through this together." Skye smiled up at him.

"Together."

***A.O.S***

Skye stopped the car and turned off the engine of her retail car. She could tell Ward was nervous because his hands and legs were shaking. Skye reached over and placed a hand on his leg to help calm him. From where they were parked they could see Coulson and May standing on the platform waiting for them.

"Remember I'm right with you every step of the way." Skye told him then got out of the car.

Ward slowly got out the car as well. He waited for Skye at the front of the car whistle she took TJ out of the car. Once she reached Ward she handed over the car seat that held their son inside and took his free hand. Together they walked into the bus. Coulson and May meet them at the bottom stairs, Coulson smiled because he was happy to see Skye smiling. May might not show it but she was also happy. Skye meant a lot to the whole team and sees her happy and smiling made them happy.

"I would like to have a word with you Ward," Coulson looked at Skye, "In private."

Ward passed TJ back to his mother before following Coulson up to his office. Ward got more nervous when Coulson closed his office door and asked him to take a seat. Coulson took his seat behind his desk. Coulson sat staring at Ward but Ward couldn't keep his eye contact finding the floor more interesting to look at.

"Ward." Coulson could tell that the man in front of him was nervous and a lot different from the specialist he used to be. "It's going to take a lot of work to get you both mentally and physically ready for field work but you have to earn mine and the rest of the teams trust as well. Are you ready for this?"

"Yes Sir." Ward crocked out his voice shaky.

"Relax Ward. I'm not about to send you back to prison if I was going to do that, I would have sent May or Trip to pick you up. Your great at your job and I believe that you are still going to be great at it when you're not being controlled by a mad man but a happy go lucky hacker who happens to be the mother of your child." Ward gave Coulson a small smile when he talked about Skye.

"I do….it for Skye…..'n' TJ, I don't want…..to loss…..them." Ward voice was stating to strain and hurt a lot.

"Don't strain yourself to much Ward. One of the many languages you can speak doesn't happen to be ALS, does it?" Coulson asked.

Ward shock his head, he had even thought about learning ALS. He had always assumed that he would never have anyone to talk to. However he probably should especially if the damage to his larynx was now permanent.

"Let's go join the team before Skye comes busting in here wondering what I've done with you." Coulson stood smiling at Ward.

Heading back down to the main living area they found the team all squished on the sofa. May sat on the left side holding TJ then it was Skye, Jemma, Fitz and finally Trip. Everyone turned their attention to Coulson and Ward when they came into the main area. This was the first time Ward had come face to face with FitzSimmons since throwing them out of the plane.

"I want…..to apologise to you…all for all that…..I've done. I'm…..sorry." Ward stammered.

Fitz was first to make a move. He as he moved towards Ward everyone thought Fitz was going to hit him but they were all surprised when Fitz hugged him. Ward tightly wrapped his arms around the man he thought of as a little brother. He could feel the tears roll down his cheek, he squeezed his eyes shut tightening his hold on Fitz. Jemma joined the pair so Ward moved one arm to wrap it around Jemma. Ward whispered something to cause them both to nod. Coulson patted him on the back and join the rest of them on the sofa. Pulling apart Jemma kissed Ward on the cheek and Fitz placed a hand on his shoulder.

Ward looked around the room his eyes connecting with hers. He watched her wipe away tears that she let escape. She smiled at him glad FitzSimmons had shown that they had one some way had forgiving him. Taking TJ from May, she made her over to him.

"Welcome Home, Grant." Skye kissed him ignoring the wolf whistle from Fitz. Separating from their kiss Ward couldn't keep the smile off his face. Running his fingers through TJ's soft curls he was happy that he could now say that he had a place he could call home.

The end

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